Through Balanda Eyes

Commuting

Well I've finally made a start. Last week I rode to work via Lee Point which extends my trip to work by about another seven or eight km. I'm lucky I live in such a great area full of cycle paths and parkland, because I hate riding along busy roads. The trip to work via Lee Point is quite picturesque and takes me through the Casuarina Coastal reserve. On my way to work last Thursday I saw ten Orange-footed Scrub Fowl and various other birds including a Rose-crowned Dove.

Today I will enroll in some library cataloging units. These will be held at Palmerston campus which means I'll have a 40 km round trip once a week which I hope to do on my bike. The problem now is that none of my bikes are in good enough shape or suitable for a road ride like that. Officially I have four bikes including Sam's $100 Kmart special (no actually there are now five bikes because I picked up another one from the tip last night!) but three (four) are in need of desperate repairs. I think for a commute like this I must resurrect the old Shogun road bike.
I have only a short time but this must be done.
Riding in Darwin is a wet and sticky affair, when the evening temperature is often over 30c and the humidity between 50% and 90% there is no way to arrive anywhere dry. Often I hope it will rain so that some of the sweat is washed out of my cloths before I have to meet anyone. The Palmerston Campus has a shower for students to use so what I can do is put a pannier rack on my racer and carry dry clothes to wear in class. I can wash the sweat out of my cycling cloths in the shower hang them somewhere inconspicuous and then put them back on (wet but hopefully not smelly) for the ride home.
Now the bike will need some work, I'll have to lubricate the brake cables so the brakes will disengage when I use them, re-wrap the bars with some tape, try to find some heavy duty tires and get some lights because I'll be riding in the dark.
So hopefully this is the beginning of a more active year for me. I think I'll get a battery for my bike computer so I can measure my distances and times. Racing against the clock should keep me motivated for a while.
Well it's already quarter to seven and I've been blogging when I could have been cycling now I'll have to take the quick road to work! Mr Homer Simpson has a word for this.... "DOW!!!"